Greywing44: I like it! Come to think of it Soul And Aura are a lot alike. It doesn't really work like armor but it can be projected outwards like a weapon.
Related note, did Stein's Technique have a name before or did you make it up?
Also related note, are you going to have semblances where people can turn into weapons or was only Stein crossed over?
And you're adding soul resonance? I surmise it'll be different then Maka's witch hunter or demon hunter...Though I suppose Ruby's eyes are similar to Demon hunter. They could probably destroy possession type Grimm who took over humans.
NeoNazo356: Glad to see the first Review was from a familiar face.
As for Stein's Soul Menace, yes that was its name from the "Soul Eater" Canon. Jack's Ratel Wave is a play on Black Star's Ultimate Move: Black Star Big Wave, and there's a very good reason for that being the case even though Jack and Black Star have never met.
As for the Demon Weapons' ability, yes, I plan for it to be a Hereditary Semblance (similar to the Schnee Glyphs) since in Soul Eater, the ability to turn into a Demon Weapon is in fact "Hereditary". That Semblance are confirmed to be Hereditary in Canon makes for a smoother segue.
When it comes to Soul Resonance from "Soul Eater", since Aura in "RWBY" is used as a "power source" by similar vein, it isn't too hard to imagine that something similar could be done in "RWBY". However, when it comes to moves like the Witch-Hunt Slash, Demon-Hunt Slash, etc., those moves become usable because of Soul Resonance. Think of them like the Combo Moves from team-based RTS games where certain high-octane moves only become usable through teamwork.
EX: If Ruby and Jack were to use Soul Resonance to combine their Semblance together, the end-result would be something like the Super Fang Wolf Fang/Chō Garōga from Naruto, since the power of their Semblance isn't only Added Together, but Multiplied as well; like the Power Level of those performing the Fusion Dance or using Patora Earrings.
Guest: :I love this !
ALSO , WHAT THE HELL?
NeoNazo356: I... can't really reply to you if you do this anonymously.
Did you at least read the Prequel?
*NEW WORLD*
"No seriously! What the fuck just happened?!" Jaune gaped as Team Juniper and Team Ruby waited outside the infirmary a while after early dismissal.
"I told you, Jaune, after Ruby passed some kind of messed-up test that Dr. Stein cooked up, we were let out early, and now we're all licking our wounds before our next class," Ren stated, an ice pack held to the forming bruise across his abdomen.
"I… still have mixed feelings about our homeroom teacher," Pyrrha said holding an icepack to the back of her head. "Was Dr. Stein ever really going to dissect us, or was he playing the villain so he could evaluate our character?"
"I'm pretty sure he was," Ruby said from beside her sister, the girl re-clothed after a search of the teacher's desk found hers and Jaune's clothing waiting for them. "As soon as school's out, I'm going to give Arthur a call."
"Why not call him right now?" Weiss asked as she nervously flattened her shirt. The marker lines from before were still there, so as soon as the day ended, she was going to give the blackened skin a thorough scrubbing until all the crud was off.
"She probably doesn't want to interrupt his own schooling," Blake commented as a nurse bandaged her wounds. "Remember, Ruby's boyfriend is still attending Combat School, so-"
"Ruby has a boyfriend!" Nora gaped, bouncing back as-impressively as ever from Stein's assault.
"Yes, and as I was saying, he still has formal schooling, so Ruby can't pester him with phone calls all day every day," the stoic girl continued.
" . . . So does anyone else feel like we let one another down, or is it just me?" Yang asked.
At that, the group fell silent, their swift defeat from before hanging over their heads like storm clouds. Last-term they were all the cream of the crop, best grades among their peers and some of the strongest Freshmen that Beacon had had in years. And yet, all that confidence was swiftly undone by a mad doctor with a body modification fetish.
"I'm just worried about whether or not Jack will be okay," Blake hummed worriedly. "Even if that attack wasn't electricity, Jack still took it to the brain for a solid ten seconds, and people are not supposed to bleed from the mouth and eyes like that," she shuddered, remembering the state they'd found him in before calling the paramedics.
"That and the back of his head exploded like a ripe tomato when he hit the ground," Yang muttered.
"Hey now, Jack's a tough critter! He'll pull through!" Nora said with a goofy grin. A grin that slowly spread through the group, lightening everyone's moods.
"Ruby Rose," Dr. Katt said as she stepped out of the examination room.
"Dr. Katt, is Jack going to be okay?" Ruby asked worriedly.
"I'm not exactly thrilled to be seeing him so-soon into the new term, but yes, he's going to be okay," the doctor replied. "However… while there isn't any permanent damage, Jack will still be a little… well…" she paused, looking at the Faunus' chart before coming out and saying it. "I'm just going to come out and say it; Jack will be a bit of a vegetable until he recovers."
"A VEGETABLE?!" Team RWBY and JNPR gawked.
"Not in the long-term!" Dr. Katt said waving her hands frantically. "If what he were hit with was electricity, then yeah, that might've been the case, but since this was an Auric attack, Jack's condition is more metaphysical than anything else…"
"What do you mean?" Yang asked.
"Well, I mean… You know how Aura makes you mostly bulletproof, or capable of surviving great falls, or more-resistant to blades than body armor?" the doctor groused. "Well, Jack's own Aura took the brunt of the attack Dr. Stein used, hence whey he isn't dead, but since his Aura is connected to his Soul, and both that and his brain were attacked… Think of it like a computer that has to reboot in order to update its software."
"So you're saying Jack will recover, but like a computer in the process of updating, he can't really do anything until he's done," Blake hummed.
"Something like that," Dr. Katt replied. "Bring him back around if his condition persists for more than twelve hours. Until then, you'll have to carry him around, make sure he attends all his classes."
"Shouldn't Jack be resting, though?" Weiss asked.
"To be honest, given the vector of his condition, where he rests isn't as-important as whom he's resting around," she replied. "As long as you don't let him out of your sights, Jack should be right as rain with a little rest."
"Well… Alright, then," Ruby hummed, clapping her hands to her cheeks as she rose from her seat. "Come on, team! We've still got three classes and a lunch break to power through, so let's beat these Mondays! Banzai!" she rallied, the rest of Team RWBY replying to her sentiment with varying levels of enthusiasm.
"Oh! Wait! I have a question!" Yang suddenly called out. "Why'd the back of Jack's head explode like a ripe tomato when he hit the floor?"
"Yeah, there was blood eeeverywhere!" Nora gawked.
"Oh that?" Dr. Katt blinked. "Well, as it turned out, Dr. Stein's attack agitated an old wound on the back of his skull, and landing on said wound just agitated it even further. The attack and the fall both ruptured a blood vessel, but the wound had already begun to heal well before I dressed the wound. Most I had to do was run some water through his hair and rub a little ointment into his scalp."
"How old is the wound?" Yang found herself asking.
"I'm not expert in that field of medicine, but I'd say… he probably got it in his early teens. Maybe pre-teens," the doctor hummed, Yang's shoulders hitching. "Is there anything else you wanted to know?"
"Nope. Nope. I'm… good," Yang answered tensely, much to the others' confusion.
*NEW WORLD*
"I'm really glad Dr. Katt loaned us this wheelchair," Ruby hummed as she pushed the Faunus along. "If we had to carry him, he might be kinda heavy…"
"Yeah. Let's make sure not to lose him this time," Weiss chided.
"Wait, you lost him?" Jaune questioned.
"It was a one-time thing!" the black-haired girl blushed furiously.
"How the heck do you lose a guy when he's in a freakin' wheelchair?" Nora asked gesturing to the somewhat-vegetative Faunus.
She'd once moved to poke at his face, but Ren had dutifully slapped her hand away to preserve his peer's dignity.
"Very easily apparently," Yang huffed, holding onto Jack's hand as they wheeled him along. Jack was still breathing, but that glassy-eyed look kinda creeped her -and the others- out, so during the free time they had until second block, the blond went back to their room and grabbed her aviator's sunglasses.
It didn't make him any better, but it made it easier to carry him around.
That and it helped preserve his dignity; something Weiss showed a great deal of insistence on upholding in his unconscious state.
"Still, I'm not really looking forward to homeroom tomorrow," Jaune grumbled. "I feel violated."
"You're a guy. You don't get to feel violated about stuff. Only offended," Nora huffed.
"That seems like a double-standard," Jaune huffed in turn.
"The world's full of them," Ren commented.
"Still, I can't help but agree with Jaune," Pyrrha hummed. "Can we really trust Dr. Stein to have our best interests at heart after the way he treated us today?"
" . . . To be honest, the man terrifies me," Weiss stated, drawing the others' attention to her. "Feeling those eyes on me makes my skin crawl, and the way he utterly objectified us as test subjects to be cut open and studied doesn't sit well with me. But still…" she listed off, her hand finding Jack's, remembering how much he'd endured in her defense, despite their past animosity toward one another. "That he was able to defeat all of us speaks a great deal to his ability not only as a fighter, but as an Aura-user as well. If we can digest even a fraction of that ability… I think we'd all have a much better chance of attaining our respective ambitions in the near or far-off future."
"So then I guess it's a case of crappy teaching, great results," Yang hummed. Her uncle Qrow might've been a bit eccentric, and the drinking would make most parents beyond wary of having him teach their children, but if said children could be given the skills and tools to survive… a little eccentricity was an acceptable compromise.
"Alright. But if he tries dissecting us again, I am writing a very strongly-worded letter," Pyrrha huffed angrily.
*NEW WORLD*
Their free time given to them by Dr. Stein eventually vanished like the sands in an hourglass, and with plenty of time teams RWBY and JNPR made their way to second period, titled Advanced Dust Manipulation in their syllabus. As opposed to homeroom, there weren't any suspiciously-placed wheel-in chalkboards, just attending students.
"Yeesh, what happened to him?" Cardin asked glancing Jack's way as he was wheeled in.
"Why are you worried?" Jaune wondered.
"Yeah! You totally ditched us!" Ruby cried.
"Hey, I tried getting help, but no-one wanted to touch that place with a ten-foot pole!" Cardin defended. "Those guys on the other hand…" he said jabbing a thumb at Dominic and his posse.
"Stow it, Winchester," Dominic grumbled with a bit of spine.
"Make me, DIRT-minic… Okay in retrospect, that quip sounded better in my head," Cardin hummed after a pause. " . . . Your team's name is Dirt! Ha!" he said recovering, causing the brown-haired teen to growl indignantly.
"Still, I must say, to put the Jack Braxton in such a state, Dr. Stein must be truly terrifying," Terrence hummed with interlaced fingers, an oddly-satisfied smirk on his face.
"Yes, well, you'll all have to deal with him same as us tomorrow, so don't act like this isn't your problem," Weiss huffed. Stein was not the kind of person whose hands she wanted on her body.
"So… You think our next teacher's going to be another eccentric weirdo?" Nora asked.
"God I hope not," Jaune shuddered, the classroom door opening leading to confident strides entering the room, all conversation halting as they beheld who they assumed to be their second period teacher.
The woman was tall and on the slender side with a pale white complexion, fiery red hair brushed to the right, and piercing gold-colored eyes pronounced by the dark eyeliner she wore. Her attire while far from conservative wasn't entirely-revealing either, hinting it may've been what she wore on-the-job as a Huntress, showing she was someone who valued their individuality and didn't subject themselves to conformism.
Aforementioned attire consisted of a red tank top exposing ample yet-tasteful cleavage and a tan-colored sleeveless leather jacket with a fluffy collar zipped up to the underside of her bosom, leaving a narrow band of midriff visible. From the waist-down she was clad in black tight-fitting pants and dark-brown leather chaps, and armored greaves over armored wedge-heeled boots. In addition to the tattered yellow waist-cape dangling loosely off her hips, she also had fingerless leather gloves that stopped midway up her forearm, with a semi-automatic pistol holstered to her right thigh, the ammo belt around her waist loaded up with various kinds of Dust Bullets.
The most-striking part of her however were the wavy, borderline abstract, blue-colored tattoos dominating the left side of her body from the neck down, ripples of glowing energy briefly rolling through them like waves of fire over water.
"Good morning, class," the woman greeted as she made her way to the front of the room. "My name is Lilith Varod; friends call me Lilith. I'll be your Advanced Dust Manipulation teacher this term," she said writing her name on the board in elegant cursive with long sweeping chalkstrokes. "Now, before we begin the introductory lecture… What the heck happened to him?" she asked glancing at Jack, the Faunus slumped forward with his glasses in his lap, revealing glassy half-lidded eyes.
"Dr. Stein kinda fried his brain this morning," Yang said straightening him and putting the glasses back over his eyes. "Dr. Katt says he should return to normal by the end of the day, but until he snaps out of what Dr. Stein did to him, the guy's going to be a bit of a vegetable."
"Oh… Well, if Dr. Stein is involved, I can definitely give that a pass," the woman nodded in understanding as Black tied the Faunus to the back of the chair with a spare ribbon so he wouldn't fall out. "You will of course be expected to fill him in on anything he's missed. Not unless you want him falling behind."
"Don't worry, I'll record everything the teachers say and play it back to him later," Ruby said taking out her Scroll, bringing Lilith into frame. "Aaand… scene!"
" . . . Alright. Class, welcome to Advanced Dust Manipulation," Lilith announced, straightening her clothes subconsciously as she was filmed.
'Yes! Finally something I'm better at than everyone else!' Weiss thought giddily, a manic grin on her face with eyes to match.
"Some of what we cover will be theory, but when it comes to using Dust, I believe the best way to learn is to do, so most of our classes not covering theory will be held at one of the training grounds as we practice application of Dust Theory," Lilith stated. "Not only will you be learning how to safely handle Dust in both its powdered and crystallized forms, you'll also be learning to use it in tandem with your Semblance."
At this, those not-already versed in Dust Synergy murmured excitedly.
"Now, while every Human and Faunus has the potential to develop a Semblance, even when there's overlap, those Semblance will behave very differently on an internal level from person to person, so when it comes to synergizing Dust with your Aura and Semblance proper, you'll be largely on your own since I can't use your Semblance for you," Lilith went on to say. "Some people may find it harder than others to use Dust in tandem with your Semblance, but even if you have a hard time of it, that doesn't give you the excuse to slack off and become a one-trick-pony. If I catch you slacking off, there'll be point deductions. As long as you try, you'll receive full marks. I'm being very generous with this, so don't screw me over on this."
The woman's eyes hardening at this declaration, the tattoos visible across her body emitting a faint glow, those that were able to sat up straighter in their chairs, nodding their heads frantically.
After a few moments the woman's eyes softened, and the visible parts of her tattoos dimmed.
"Depending on how much progress we make, we might even have the opportunity to get into Dust Crafting, the practice of binding Dust to inanimate objects like weapons or even cloth to give it Elemental Properties," Lilith then stated. "While binding Dust to cloth is the most-common, Dust can also be bound to the body in either its rawest form, or as tattoos. Of course, those will be lessons for another day."
The prospect of learning to bind Dust to objects, even as-common a practice as binding it to cloth, was enough to cause excited murmurs to pass through the gathered students. Cloth bound to Red Dust could keep you warmer than even the most heavily-insulated fibers of equivalent size and weight, a thermos bound to Cyan Dust could keep your drinks cold for pretty much ever, and those were just the mundane applications of Dust other than being a fuel source. The crazier creations that Dust Crafters could make wouldn't be too out-of-place in the Fantasy genre, or games like Dragon's Dungeon.
The reason Dust-bound novelties was such a, well, novelty, was because creating said novelties was incredibly dangerous if the wrong type of Dust was set off.
Like by something as-mundane as a sneeze.
"Of course, like I said, Dust Crafting will only come up if you really wow me with your progress, so just keep that in mind," Lilith said cutting through the excited muttering. "When it comes to Dust Manipulation proper, Nature's Wrath is usually divided into two categories; Thaumaturgy, and Magecraft. The vernacular is derived from the Age of Magic, which you may've been taught about in History class, assuming Professor Oobleck-"
"Doctor!" a voice said from outside.
"-went off the reservation on you and into his own little world," Lilith continued, nonplussed. "Thaumaturgy is the usage of Dust you have on-hand to invoke Nature's Wrath, which in the past was referred to as 'Magic' until the scientific principles of Dust were more-largely understood. Magecraft on the other hand is the 'more-magical' of the two, taking pre-existing Dust in the surrounding atmosphere or environment to invoke Nature's Wrath without actually coming into physical contact with it."
"Wait, there's Dust in the air?" Ruby asked confusedly.
"Dust emissions, commonly referred to as Seithr, forms an incredibly small percentile of the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land we walk on. That percentile is so small that even when the surrounding air is on fire, there won't be any sort of Dust Explosion," Lilith answered. "Also, because there's a very finite amount of Seithr in a given space of air, water, or earth, Magecraft isn't a very reliable form of Dust Manipulation because once the Seithr in a given area is exhausted, that Seithr won't return for anywhere between weeks, months, or even years depending on the ambient air conditions."
"So… You could use Seithr to do something like… change the weather?" Ruby asked, thinking back to something she'd seen Glynda do upon their first meeting.
"Weather manipulation is one of the more-common forms of Magecraft, so yes, that's a very good example," Lilith answered. "Of course, while I'll be teaching you the mechanics of Magecraft, that's something you'll have to experiment with on your own, since in the long-term, Magecraft doesn't form an effective combat strategy, and if we tried practicing it on Beacon grounds, we'd run out of Seithr to practice on in a week."
"Will Dust be provided, or do we need to bring our own?" Weiss asked with a raised hand.
"Beacon Academy will provide a stipend for you all to practice with, though admittedly, the granular quality won't be all that great since for educational purposes, the school tends to buy middle-tier product in bulk," Lilith answered.
"Hey Weiss."
"Yes?"
"Make sure you don't Schneeze on any of it," the blond chuckled.
"Uuugh/Yang/Bad joke," was the varied reply of her peers.
"What? That was hilarious. Wasn't it, Jack?" the blond asked, jostling the Faunus' shoulder so his head bobbed up and down. "See? He agrees with me," the blond said with a grin before Weiss slapped her hand away.
"Ahem!" Lilith coughed into her hand, the blond straightening in her sat as the lecture continued.
Following this introductory lecture about what they would be covering, Lilith capped off the class with your standardized Dust Safety lecture, most of which was actually taken from a beat-up SDC DUST For Dummies and other Inadequate Individuals pamphlet she pulled out of her pocket.
For Weiss who actually retained several copies to hand out to those she deemed quote/unquote "inadequate", being on the receiving end of an SDC product safety lecture, the heiress could see how the material itself came across as a bit condescending to its customer base.
When the line Do not shake the products came about, the heiress was especially embarrassed because not only did she do just that, but she did so right in the face of someone on the verge of sneezing; something the pamphlet went as far as to point out with the quote Avoid sneezing on exposed Dust.
If her sister, or god forbid her father, had been around to see that particular episode, she might've never heard the end of it.
It was quite fortunate that her attendants had their backs turned when that happened.
Either that or they knew to be discrete when it came to the daughter of the man who signed their paychecks and could easily blacklist them from the kingdom of Atlas if he wanted to.
Of course, Weiss had no way of knowing at-present that the entire thing had been recorded and was presently flitting about the Interweb, and that it had in fact made it back home to her father's office before his PR Department began suppressing aforementioned footage.
But that, is a story for another day.
*NEW WORLD*
Borderlands, being one of my favorite video game series (Ever. Of all time.), is one of the crossovers I've most looked forward to adding to Giant-Slayer. Given how a lot of Lilith's Skills revolve around Elemental Damage, having her teach a class on Dust Manipulation & Nature's Wrath seemed natural.
As for her full NAME, Lilith Varod, it's nameplay. "Lilith" is a Night Demon from Jewish Mythology. According to Spaceman who did the research, Lilith's favorite color is Pink, and the Hebrew word for Pink is Varod/Valrod, thus falling line with the naming theme of RWBY that's thematic with color.
For her "tattoos", I have a more Remnant-centric explanation in the works. Suffice it to say, this means that her "Phasewalk" is a Semblance which allows her to cross into a parallel dimension "overlapping" Remnant's own, and the fiery explosion is caused by the "friction" that is created when she is re-introduced into Real Space as she "pushes aside" the matter in the space she is then-now occupying at relativistic speeds. Since Dust and Eridium are basically "Energy Propellants", plot points from Borderlands can be interchangeable in Remnant, apart from the fact that Remnant isn't a mining colony in the middle of nowhere space rife with corporate warfare and an outbreak of escaped convicts.
P.S.
Has anyone checked out the "Lost Chapter" at the end of Giant-Slayer proper? It may've been taken off the Follow list, so that might've been part of it.